BusinessWeek Online
SEPTEMBER 3, 2002
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
Remember Dreary Moscow? Forget It
By Richard S. Dunham
Dunham is a White House correspondent for BusinessWeek's Washington bureau.
Today, it's a combination of Washington, New York, and L.A. It's vibrant,
growing, and full of the contradictions of a changing culture
Like so many baby boomers, my first memories of Moscow were the grainy
black-and-white television images of stiff, aging Soviet leaders reviewing
the troops and tanks in Red Square. Standing by Lenin's tomb, they didn't
look much more lively than old Vladimir Ilyich himself -- embalmed though
he was.
My, how things have changed. As I discovered on a recent trip to Russia,
the old Moscow has been sand-blasted away, or just plain demolished. In its
place, capitalism -- or at least some oddly familiar but still strange form
of it -- has arrived.
The old gray dame of the communist world has been transformed into a
colorful, vibrant place. In central Moscow, at least, the dominant colors
are now gold and green: Gold for the gleaming domes on the many refurbished
churches that have sprouted like spring onions since the fall of the
Communist Party. And green for the wealth that has come, at least to a few,
in the new Russia.
CLASS DIVIDE. Lenin still sleeps in Red Square. But the cold, dank capital
of Russia has become a city that never sleeps. As you wander the streets of
central Moscow, you can see work crews from the hinterlands, Croatia, and
Belarus laboring into the night to build new apartments or renovate the
once-glorious 19th century architecture of the final czarist boom years.
Well past midnight, young people gather "downtown" and on the Lenin Hills
promenade, near Moscow State University, which offers the best view of the
city.
What a difference from when I first visited Moscow in 1987. Then, I was
struck by the food shortages (no meat or coffee in markets) and the long
lines for the few consumer goods that were available to average people. The
dominant colors were gray and olive drab. Even the snow looked gray on the
curbsides.
When I returned nine years ago, not too long after the demise of the Soviet
Union, the first signs of competitive enterprise were evident, but still
relatively little choice was available in the basic necessities of life:
housing, food, clothing, and jobs.
McMOOMOO? Now, you have as much choice as you could ever want -- if you
have the rubles. Food is fresh and plentiful -- a stark contrast to the old
days. But average workers, with old-style wages, can't afford to go on a
spending spree. Still, thousands of young Muscovites make more in a year
than their parents have earned in a lifetime. Under communism, in theory,
all were equal. Now, signs of wealth creation are evident, but there are
undeniably many more "have-nots" than "haves."
Moscow is a city of contradictions, uneasily balancing old and new, East
and West. Western-style billboards litter the cityscape, often using the
Roman alphabet and the English language (instead of the Cyrillic alphabet
and the Russian language) to advertise products from Pepsi to Marlboros to
ham-flavored Lay's potato chips.
The golden arches of "Makdonalds" have sprouted everywhere, but they have
to compete in capitalist Russia with "Moomoo," a cow-themed chain that
features fast Russian fare from borscht to blini. The city's streets remain
safe, as they were in the Soviet era, and Moscow has its first
superhighway. But traffic jams -- and big car pileups and crashes -- are a
new fact of life.
A THREE-FER. The statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Russian
KGB secret police, has been removed and his name stripped from the KGB's
Metro stop. These days, it is known as Lubyanka after the infamous
Stalin-era building that once housed KGB headquarters and in which the
feared agency's successor organization remains busy at work.
I found myself thinking of the new Moscow as a cross between Washington,
New York, and Los Angeles. Washington because Moscow is a magnet for
Russian political power and international diplomacy. New York because
Moscow is its nation's unquestioned business center and cultural mecca, far
eclipsing the once-more-Western St. Petersburg (nee Leningrad). And Los
Angeles because Moscow is the Russian movie capital and fashion trendsetter.
Ah, fashion. Fifteen years ago, the babushkas with scarves on their heads
and scowls on their faces made Moscow's style statement. Now, many women
look like they come from the pages of a clothing catalog, and well-dressed
businessmen bustle down the streets in Italian suits.
DELICATE BALANCE. American visitors in recent years have cited Berlin and
Prague as the vibrant new cities of Europe. I think you'd have to include
Moscow, the Continent's most populous city, to that list. Unlike Berlin and
Prague, however, Moscow isn't just experiencing a revival. It's emerging,
for the first time, from a long sleep.
Today, people in the provinces often speak of "Moscow" in the same way that
Americans denigrate "Hollywood" or "Washington, D.C." To them,
it's a
center of conspicuous consumption, corruption, and degraded Russian values.
Americans shouldn't underestimate the delicate political balance that
President Vladimir Putin faces as he tries to maintain political stability
and extend economic growth to the countryside. Even after the breakup of
the Soviet Union, Russia is a country that still spans 10 time zones.
It's time for the White House to understand what's going on in the new
Russia. For the most part, the Clinton Administration sided with the
radical reformers -- now discredited in Russia -- who sought rapid change
to free-market capitalism at a huge human cost. The naive enthusiasm of the
Clinton years has been replaced by a realpolitik approach more reminiscent
of Cold War days, with the U.S. suspicious of Russia's aims in the Middle
East, East Asia, and Central Europe.
Now, President Bush is building personal relationships with an autocratic
capitalist (Putin) the way his father built a friendship with an autocratic
communist (Mikhail Gorbachev). Just as Moscow has changed, it's time for
Washington to reassess its relationship with this city.
